China launched a Web site,
www.linese.com
, to offer learning courses of Mandarin Chinese online to meet the surging demand of Chinese learning around the world.
Sponsored by China's National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL), the Web site aims to offer online learning, training, volunteer help, search services and various learning resources.
If users log onto the Web site, they enter a virtual community sets in a traditional Beijing residential courtyard where registered users can communicate with each other and learn Chinese through the specially designed games.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education show more than 30 million people worldwide are learning Chinese and more than 2,500 universities in 100 countries and regions offer Chinese courses.
'With an increasing number of foreigners studying Chinese in their own country, traditional classroom instructions alone cannot cope with the huge demand,' China's Education Minister Zhou Ji said. 'This requires modern information technology and multimedia online instructions to be used more extensively to meet the learning demand."
Xu Jialu, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said the Web site is an important platform for learning Mandarin and showcasing Chinese culture.
He said it should build itself to be the world's most important Mandarin learning Web site and provide comprehensive services for people all over the world who want to learn Mandarin.